Baku, Azerbaijan, May 14
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Turkmenistan and Northern Iraq can be gas suppliers through the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan told Trend.
Regarding the future potential of TANAP, Turkmenistan can also supply gas via this pipeline if an agreement is reached, he said.
Babacan said that gas from Northern Iraq, as well as from other sources can also be supplied via TANAP in the future.
TANAP is one of the priority projects in ensuring Europe's energy security, the deputy prime minister said, adding that a number of European countries are also interested in this project and negotiations will be held with them in the future.
"Turkey is confident that the number of countries willing to get gas via TANAP will increase," said Babacan.
He added that Turkey highly appreciates this project and hopes that the pipeline will be commissioned soon.
TANAP is an energy project that links Azerbaijan and Turkey alongside with other projects, and it is important not only for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, but also for Europe, Babacan said.
TANAP envisages the transportation of gas of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey.
TANAP's initial capacity is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest of the volume to Europe.
Turkey will get gas in 2018. The gas will be supplied to Europe in early 2020 after the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is constructed.
BP and the TANAP consortium signed March 13 a shareholder agreement, according to which BP will become one of the shareholders of TANAP. The agreement is one of the main documents for BP's ownership of a stake in the TANAP project.
Following the completion of a legal implementation procedure, TANAP's shareholders list will be as follows: SOCAR - 58 percent, Botas - 30 percent and BP - 12 percent.
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